Football commentator Rio Ferdinand and actor Damian Lewis are among the well-known faces of the sports world and the arts recognized in the honors of the Queen’s birthday of the platinum jubilee.
Lewis, 51, star of Band of Brothers, Homeland and Wolf Hall, receives a CBE for drama and charity services. During the coronavirus confinement, he and his late wife, actor Helen McCrory, co-founded the NHS Feed, helping to raise more than £ 1 million to feed street restaurants to NHS staff. The honor comes after McCrory, 52, a stage and screen star who includes roles in Peaky Blinders and Harry Potter films, died in April 2021 after suffering from cancer.
Lewis said Wednesday night: “What a great honor to receive the CBE on the Queen’s Anniversary Honor Roll for my drama services and charity work over the years and during the pandemic with My late wife, Helen McCrory. Thank you very much. She and I are excited. “
Ferdinand, the former Manchester United defender, who has won 81 games in England and six Premier League titles, is receiving an OBE for his activism and charity work. The 43-year-old man, whose first wife, Rebecca, died of breast cancer in 2015, is a high-profile activist who has earned praise for his work on mourning and its founding. created to help combat inequality, racism and stigma. surrounding mental health.
Five-time Champions League winner and former Tottenham winger Gareth Bale, 32, is named MBE. The Cardiff-born striker donated more than € 1 million to hospitals in Wales and Spain in April 2020 in the early stages of the pandemic and has supported other charities in his home country.
Liverpool player James Milner is named MBE in recognition of the foundation he created to promote healthy recreation for young people.
Fans with Mike Summerbee before the 2021 Champions League final. Photo: Carl Recine / Reuters
Mike Citybee, a Manchester City star from the 1960s and 1970s, receives an OBE, as does former Watford and England striker Luther Blissett. Blissett is a patron of the Sporting Memories Foundation, a charity that addresses dementia, loneliness and depression through the power of sport.
English cricketer Moeen Ali, who receives an OBE, said: “It’s an honor to be recognized, it’s amazing and my family is very proud and happy.”
Britain’s women’s curling team’s Eve Muirhead becomes OBE after helping the country lead the podium at the February Winter Olympics as teammates Jennifer Dodds Hailey Duff Mili Smith and Victoria Wright receive MBE along with coach David Murdoch. There is also MBE for snooker players Mark Selby and Judd Trump.
British female curlers Mili Smith, Hailey Duff, Jennifer Dodds, Vicky Wright and Eve Muirhead with their Olympic medals. Photo: Ed Sykes / Action Images / Reuters
Clare Balding, a sports broadcaster who becomes CBE, said: “I’m very surprised and really excited,” adding that she saw it “as a reflection of how people care about sports.”
Brynmor Williams, 70, who played rugby union in the rugby league and competed in athletics for Wales, becomes MBE. A test player for the British Lions in 1977, he has been a well-known television and radio expert in both English and Welsh.
Television personalities on the list include MasterChef duo John Torode and Gregg Wallace, who receive MBE. Wallace said the honor was “something like a fairy tale story,” while Torode said he was “humble and very grateful.”
Bonnie Tyler on stage at the Starlite Festival in Marbella, Málaga in 2021. Photo: Antonio Paz / EPA
Singer Bonnie Tyler, 70, who grew up in Wales as Gaynor Hopkins and is best known for her hit Total Eclipse of the Heart, is named MBE. Joanne Harris, best known for her novel Chocolate, and Justin Hayward, singer and guitarist of the rock band Moody Blues, receive OBE.
Coronation Street actor Antony Cotton, 46, known for his role as bartender Sean Tully, said he was “completely overwhelmed” at his MBE by services to British Army personnel and veterans. He said: “Working with our incredible armed forces, particularly with the Army, has really been the greatest honor of my life.” Its co-star Helen Worth also becomes MBE, as does actor Pauline Quirke, founder of Pauline Quirke Academy.
Stephen Hough. Photo: Tristram Kenton / The Guardian
Renowned pianist and composer Stephen Hough, who has regularly appeared with some of the world’s leading orchestras as a soloist, including 29 appearances on the BBC Proms, is named Knight. He said his honor “involved recognizing that classical music is a thing of continuing relevance and importance in British cultural life”.
Chi-chi Nwanoku, founder of Europe’s first major and minority ethnic orchestra, and artist Cornelia Parker receive CBE.